7-18-2008
A new report, The 2008 Mobile Life Report, out of the United Kingdom provides us with some current Internet statistics. A few of those stats can easily be taken out of context so we will deal with them first:
Claim: "One in ten children have sexually explicit conversations on the internet"
or- "11 per cent of children aged 11 to 18 have had sexually explicit conversations online"
Source: Mobile Life report 2008, page 46.
Highlights of Report:
The Mobile Life Report (2008) reveals that 1 in 3 UK children interact with strangers online; 1 in 7 find themselves in a situation where they find themselves uncomfortable or uneasy online; and 1 in 10 of the children and young people surveyed report having sexually explicit conversations online.
Those sexually explicit conversations are with people known to the children. i.e., their friends. Also that, the percentage is for the UK and not the US which reports a lower percentage. Also, that 49% of those children lie to their parents telling them they are doing homework when they are really online.
Within that report are many stats far too many to duplicate here so get a cup of coffee and enjoy this new report. Many of their comments are new ways of thinking about the truth of stats and unfortunately I can see some will be taken out of context.
eAdvocate
6-22-2008 National:
Parents may be worried about that frightening stranger who hides behind a computer screen to lure children in online, depicted on the popular television news series, “How To Catch A Predator.”
However, a recent survey shows that cyber crimes are more likely to come from a fellow student than an adult. The survey results also show that children as young as kindergarten surf the Internet, with some exposed to material they said made them uncomfortable.
Among other findings: Cyber bullying — sending threatening or demeaning messages — starts as early as second grade and peaks in middle school.
Rochester Institute of Technology researchers released their findings in a survey of children’s online experiences at a press conference at the school June 18.
Fourteen school districts took part in and helped pay for the far-reaching survey, which surveyed about 40,000 students and hundreds of teachers as part of the Rochester Regional Cyber Safety and Ethics Initiative. The surveys were taken between May 2007 and January 2008.
The districts were: Brighton, Brockport, Canandaigua, the Diocese of Rochester, East Irondequoit, East Rochester, Fairport, Gates Chili, Greece, Hilton, Kendall, Monroe 1 BOCES, Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES, Newark, Penfield, Pittsford, Rush-Henrietta, Victor, Webster, West Irondequoit and Wheatland-Chili.
Sam McQuade, graduate program coordinator at RIT’s Center for Multidisciplinary Studies, said the survey was as comprehensive as any ever conducted on computer crime and victimization.
“It’s unique because for the first time, children younger than seven years of age were asked about their Internet activities,” said McQuade.
Additionally, the survey points out the ages when children become victims, as well as offenders of cyber crime.
The survey was conducted after a previous RIT survey showed cyber crimes occurring in college. School officials felt that similar events occurred in elementary, middle and high schools, but didn’t know how much.
Brighton Superintendent Chris Manaseri said the data can help Brighton and other school districts respond.
“What the data revealed in the Cyber survey can do for schools is to help us understand the need for curriculum and staff development at age appropriate levels and the importance of addressing the issues in ways that students will understand and respond to positively,” Manaseri said.
Manaseri said the survey will allow them to lead the way for other communities in responding to cyber crime among students.
“As a consortium of school districts,” he said, “we are very pleased to be partners with others in our community who recognize this important issue and who have taken steps to begin to address it at a grassroots level, in a matter which will be a model for other communities around the nation or the world.”
Researchers grouped their results by age. Here are some of the findings.
Primary
The survey results showed that, even in kindergarten and first grade, most kids have access to home computers. Fifty-seven percent of kindergarten through first-grade students in Monroe County surf the Internet with the home machines.
Forty-eight percent of kindergartners and first-graders reported seeing things on the Internet that made them uncomfortable, but only 72 percent of those students reported the experience to an adult.
In second and third grades, 94 percent children in this group joined the online gaming craze. Kids reported being exposed to sexual Internet communications as early as the second grade. Eleven percent of second- and third-graders were asked online to describe private things about their bodies and 10 percent of children reported being exposed to private things about someone else’s body. Cyber bullying was experienced by 18 percent of kids. Nine percent of students admitted to bullying.
For the most part, these younger kids were protected by their lack of reading and writing skills, which limited their ability to understand written content or to participate in chat rooms. Although children of any age can fall prey to online abuse, the survey showed that the potential increased as they become more proficient with their language skills and acquired Internet communication skills.
Elementary
The survey showed crimes such as illegal pirating of music, movies and software began for many in fourth grade.
Although risky behavior was low for kids in fourth, fifth and sixth grades, a large number could be victimized by having posted personal information on the Internet. Personal interests were posted online by 16 percent, physical activities were posted by 15 percent, real names were used by 20 percent, and 23 percent said they lied about their age online.
Fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders were asked whether they had been victimized in any way online. Of the children who responded:
• 13 percent said someone used their password without their knowledge.
• 10 percent had been embarrassed online
• 7 percent had been threatened or bullied
• 2 percent were exposed to nude pictures or private things about someone else’s body
• 3 percent were shown nude pictures of other people
• 1 percent were asked for nude pictures of themselves
Middle and high school
From the middle school to the high school, kids experienced all forms of online abuse either as victims or perpetrators.
Although cyber bullying is known to continue beyond high school, the survey showed that it peaked during middle school. Cyber bullying and abuse were more common from grades 7 through 9.
Students in seventh through ninth grades were asked if they had done something they shouldn’t have online:
• 7 percent said they bypassed security controls designed to keep them off certain Web sites
• 4 percent embarrassed someone online
• 4 percent threatened or harassed someone
• 3 percent requested nude photos
• 11 percent pretended to be someone else
• 24 percent lied about their age
• 5 percent admitted to online plagiarism
As for the victims in this age group:
• 15 percent had someone impersonate them online
• 13 percent reported being bullied or threatened
Many of the victims knew the perpetrator, as 59 percent reported that they had been victimized by friends.
In grades 10 through 12, 12 percent admitted bypassing security measures, 65 percent said they downloaded music illegally, 34 percent said they downloaded movies illegally and 30 percent said they downloaded software illegally.
Being harassed was reported by 17 percent of kids in this age group and online stalking was reported by 15 percent. Exposure to unwanted pornography was reported by 23 percent of students.
The survey showed 48 percent of students in the age group chatted with strangers.
Staff
A total of 880 teachers and other school staff took a separate survey.
According to the survey, relatively few teachers believe they are currently prepared to teach students in areas of Internet safety, information security or cyber ethics. A majority feel that these are important subjects, however, teachers in grades K-3 believe these subjects are less important for younger students to know about.
In general, teachers feel that districts are well prepared to facilitate student learning through technology.
Parents
Of the 376 parents surveyed, 25 percent feel that their child knows more about computer technology than they do, while 14 percent feel that they know the same amount as their children do. Fourteen percent of parents caught their children doing something with a computer they should not have been doing.
Parents were generally aware of filtering, blocking and information-security software, but only 30 percent reported using the software.
Students also say they are less supervised than their parents think. Only seven percent of parents surveyed said they provide no supervision for their children when they are online, whereas 66 percent of students say their parents provide no supervision.
More information on the survey is available at the Rochester Regional Cyber Safety and Ethics Initiative Web site: www.rrcsei.org. ..News Source.. by Dan Goldman, staff writer
June 2008
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
f n May 2007 through January 2008 fourteen Monroe County school districts in New York State participated in a major research study undertaken by the Rochester Institute of Technology (RlT). A major portion of the study was an online survey. lt was designed to.
Measure the nature and extent of online victimization and offending experiences of K-12th grade students; Determine types and levels of supervision and role modeling employed by parents pertaining to the use of computers and portable electronic devices by their children; and Obtain information from teachers about their perceptions of school-related cyber abuse and crime, along with the potential need and challenges associated with implementing cyber safety and ethics instruction.
The survey project was the initial basis for establishing a partnership among RIT and approximately thirty school districts from throughout the Greater Rochester New York area, along with three prominent national organizations, including: (1)the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), (2) the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA), and (3) Rochester InfraGard Member Alliance. InfraGard is an information sharing and analysis effort serving the interests and combining the knowledge base of a wide range of members.
These organizations initially joined forces in August of 2006 and eventually formed the Rochester Regional Cyber Safety and Ethics Initiative (RRCSEI). Monroe County school districts was actively involved in helping to create the RRCSEI, and shaping its mission of "advancing K-12 cyber safety and ethics education along with parent and workforce training in these topics through research, instructional programming, professional development, evaluation and public awareness." Thereafter, Monroe County districts and numerous other area school districts agreed during the fall months of 2006 to participate in what became the R/f Survey of lnternet and At-risk Behaviors.
This report explains how the survey project was designed and administered. lt summarizes the results of Monroe County districts' student, parent and teacher versions of the survey and makes recommendations for staff development, instructional intervention and outreach to parents. This report is one of three being provided by RIT to Monroe County districts as part the RRCSEI study. Other reports to be provided to districts are (1) a district level analysis of survey findings report and (2) a Content Analysis Report of available online instructional resources that school districts may wish to consider using as a basis for providing lnternet safety, information security and cyber ethics education. ..Source.. by Rochester Institute of Technology
“It’s not primarily having a social networking profile or giving out personal information that puts kids at risk What puts kids at risk are things like having a lot of conflict with your parents, being depressed and socially isolated, being hyper, communicating with a lot of people online who you don’t know, being willing to talk about sex online with people that you don’t know.” - David Finkelhor SafeKids' LARRY MAGID’S INTERVIEW WITH DAVID FINKELHOR
5-21-2008 National:
In the suicide case of 13-year-old Megan Meier, a 49-year-old mother, Lori Drew, allegedly posed as a teen-age boy to gain the affections of young Megan under false pretenses. After a flirtatious online relationship, this fictitious young man “broke up” with Megan and Megan hanged herself about an hour later. To many, this is a case of cyberbullying, though not a very typical one for several reasons discussed here. David Finkelhor is Director of the University of New Hampshire’s Crimes Against Children Research Center and one of the world’s leading scholars when it comes to the victimization of children both on and off the Internet. In an interview with Dr. Finkelhor, I started by asking him to explain just how common or rare this type of situation happens to be.
FINKELHOR: Bullying happens an awful lot. As far as we know, it’s not typically adults who are bullying and harassing young people. It tends to be more often young-people-on-young-people, so this case was somewhat unusual in that sense. But the Internet does allow a lot of permutations that we might not have thought about in the area when children are more confined to their own kind of ghetto of childhood, so this is something that we might see more of.
MAGID: Moving away for a moment from the adult issue, how common is cyberbullying among children and teens and how much of an impact does it have on them?
FINKELHOR: We’re really getting our legs on this topic in trying to understand more about it. Bullying in general takes a terrific toll on children. In fact, when we talk with young people in an interview, this is one of the perils that they are most concerned about, and certainly many studies have shown it to have serious psychological impact. Our studies of harassment online suggested that it can have an impact on kids as well. But how serious it has to be and how long it has to go on before it really begins to kind of be corrosive, I don’t think we know all of that yet.
MAGID: What’s the difference between and schoolyard bullying and cyberbullying?
FINKELHOR: A lot of comparisons have been made, but I think we are still learning more about this. People like to emphasize the degree to which bullying can be anonymous online and the degree to which it could be amplified by being disseminated to large numbers of people. And [these factors] certainly increase the seriousness. But on the other hand, the physical intimidation dimensions aren’t quite as great as in face-to-face bullying. And we don’t know if there might in fact be some substitution of online bullying for old fashioned face-to-face bullying which means that it is somewhat less scary in some of its dimensions.
MAGID: I believe it was you, who reported that roughly 32-33% of youths have received some type of online harassment. Is that the case?
FINKELHOR: Right. That’s what our survey shows, but there’s been some use of the term “bullying” applied to that, and that’s probably not correct because the bullying authorities like to restrict that term to harassment and threats that occur over a continued period of time and that involve an imbalance of power between the perpetrator and the victim. And most of these online harassment situations don’t involve those two elements.
Predator Risk is not what a lot of people think
MAGID: This [Meier case] isn’t what you would typically call a predator case - although it is a case where an adult is posing as a child, but in this case not for sexual purposes but to otherwise harass. But let’s talk for a minute about predators. Because, if you look at some of the media reports, it seems almost as if there’s a predator behind every keyboard. How prominent is it?
FINKELHOR: “Predator” is not a word that I like to use a whole lot myself. “Offenders,” “perpetrators,” “abusers,” I think, work a lot better. There’s an image that developed in the media and to some extent in the educational programs that there are these Internet predators who trail all over the Internet looking for innocent young children who inadvertently log their personal information into a service online and then, using that information, they stalk these kids; they pretend to be other kids and lure them to meetings where they abduct them, rape or murder them. That’s not really, I think, a good description of the majority of the sex offenses that we see adults committing against children online. They primarily involve adults who are offending against teenagers. We see very few cases of young children, so primarily it’s 12-, 13-, 14-, 15-year-olds. There was a perception that people tend to think these adults usually are hiding the fact that they’re adults and eventually the kids come to see that they have a sexual interest in them as well, even if they don’t make that clear at the very beginning but certainly do when a meeting occurs.
MAGID: You’re saying that kids usually aren’t surprised. If they do actually wind up with a face-to-face meeting they’re not terribly surprised once they get there.
FINKELHOR: The kids typically go to these meetings and know that this is an encounter with somebody whom they’re romantically interested in or whom they are looking for an adventure with and where sex is on the agenda. These much more fit the stereotype of what you might call statutory sex crimes than either child molestation or forcible rape.
MAGID: In 2000 you did a study that reported that 1 in 5 youths had received an unwanted sexual solicitation and when you repeated that in 2005 it went down to 1 in 7, which is good. But I’ve read some reports in the media and from politicians that have used the word predator, that is, 1 in 5 or 1 in 7 young people have been approached by an online predator. Could you put that into some perspective?
FINKELHOR: In that survey we did find that 1 out of 7 young people who use the Internet [received] an unwanted sexual solicitation or inquiry from someone online. But those aren’t all predators by any stretch of the imagination. I like to say it’s more like 1 in 25 kids who encounter what we call an aggressive solicitation, somebody who sent them a kind of sexual message and is trying to follow that up in some way by actually trying to meet them or arranging to contact them offline as well.
MAGID: Right. But some of those 1 in 7, some of them are either minors - about half, I think - and then some of them, as you said, are non-aggressive, that the kids just deal with in some way?
FINKELHOR: Yeah, you can imagine, given the anonymity of the Internet, there are a lot of people who are just being fresh, I think. They’re asking kids, what’s your bra size? Or they’re making some rude sexual comment to them, it’s not necessarily a prelude to an attempt to meet them or sexually seduce them even.
MAGID: And then finally when you talk about the 1 in 25, and when you look at other data about “at risk kids,” it appears and again this is from looking at much of your research, that there is a pattern of risk and there are certain activities that kids engage in that tends to increase the risk. It’s more or less sociological or psychological conditions under which kids find themselves. And I am wondering whether we can begin to get a better understanding or have a better understanding as to who is at risk and what can be done for this particular population?
What puts kids at risk
FINKELHOR: That’s a good question. It’s not primarily having a social networking profile or giving out personal information that puts kids at risk. What puts kids at risk are things like having a lot of conflict with your parents, being depressed and socially isolated, being hyper, communicating with a lot of people online who you don’t know, being willing to talk about sex online with people that you don’t know. I think also, for example, having sexual orientation questions probably puts kids at risk
MAGID: Being in doubt about your sexual orientation?
FINKELHOR: Yeah, cause kids are online kind of looking for help on that and that makes them vulnerable. These are kids who have encountered trouble and are having difficulties in various places in their lives, probably because they don’t have good relationships, or they are in conflict, don’t have people to confide in. They’re out there and more vulnerable to these sexual exploitations.
MAGID: This doesn’t sound like a new story. This sounds like something that people have been talking about for decades in terms of kids at risk. Is there anything special about today’s high-risk kids versus the ones who were around 20, 30, 40 years ago?
FINKELHOR: That’s a good question. They certainly have many of the characteristics of kids that we’ve always regarded as being high risk. Although because the Internet maybe has not penetrated to some of the lower socio-economic strata yet these kids just may be kind of better off than the troubled kids that a lot of our social programs have been oriented towards in the past.
MAGID: And that brings up the final question, which is social problems. What can be done? I mean, do we need to educate the entire population or do we really have a sub-section of the population that needs some kind of special service in terms of online-safety education?
FINKELHOR: I think we need to do both. Both what you’d call primary and secondary prevention. I think that there are good Internet citizenship and safety skills that probably everybody should have. But we need a second tier of prevention programs that really are targeted to kids that might be at high risk or might be thinking about doing more edgy, dangerous kinds of things. They might be having some kinds of problems, and helping them to see what some of the consequences might be [would be helpful]. As for that group in particular, I think we need to say talking to their parents about how to better control and supervise them may not really work. These are kids who frequently are not amenable to parental control or maybe don’t have a very good relation with their parents. So we need to find ways, I think, to reach them more directly.
MAGID: David Finkelhor, the Director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, thank you very much.
FINKELHOR: Thank you. That was a good conversation. ..more..
2-28-2008 National:
A few years ago, a parenting magazine asked me to write an article about the dangers that children face when they go online. As it turns out, I was the wrong author for the article they had in mind.
The editor was deeply disappointed by my initial draft. Its chief message was this: “Sure, there are dangers. But they’re hugely overhyped by the media. The tales of pedophiles luring children out of their homes are like plane crashes: they happen extremely rarely, but when they do, they make headlines everywhere. The Internet is just another facet of socialization for the new generation; as always, common sense and a level head are the best safeguards.”
So the editor sent me the contact information for several parents of young children with Internet horror stories, and suggested that I interview them. One woman, for example, told me that she became hysterical when her eight-year-old stumbled onto a pornographic photo. She told me that she literally dove for the computer, crashing over a chair, yanking out the power cord and then rushing her daughter outside.
You know what? I think that far more damage was done to that child by her mother’s reaction than by the dirty picture.
2-19-2008 National:
WASHINGTON — A lot of parental worries about Internet sex predators are unjustified, according to new research by a leading center that studies crimes against children.
"There's been some overreaction to the new technology, especially when it comes to the danger that strangers represent," said Janis Wolak, a sociologist at the Crimes against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire in Durham.
"Actually, Internet-related sex crimes are a pretty small proportion of sex crimes that adolescents suffer," Wolak added, based on three nationwide surveys conducted by the center.
Two of the surveys contacted 3,000 Internet users aged 10-17 in 2000 and again in 2005. The third sums up findings from 612 interviews with investigators at a nationally representative sample of agencies that deal with Internet sex crimes involving children.
In an article titled "Online 'Predators' and Their Victims," which appears Tuesday in American Psychologist, the journal of the American Psychological Association, Wolak and co-researchers examined several fears that they concluded are myths (See also Fact Sheet: Internet Safety Education for Teens: Getting It Right):
Internet predators are driving up child sex crime rates.
Finding: Sex assaults on teens fell 52 percent from 1993 to 2005, according to the Justice Department's National Crime Victimization Survey, the best measure of U.S. crime trends. "The Internet may not be as risky as a lot of other things that parents do without concern, such as driving kids to the mall and leaving them there for two hours," Wolak said.
Internet predators are pedophiles.
Finding: Internet predators don't hit on the prepubescent children whom pedophiles target. They target adolescents, who have more access to computers, more privacy and more interest in sex and romance, Wolak's team determined from interviews with investigators.
Internet predators represent a new dimension of child sexual abuse.
Finding: The means of communication is new, according to Wolak, but most Internet-linked offenses are essentially statutory rape: nonforcible sex crimes against minors too young to consent to sexual relationships with adults.
Internet predators trick or abduct their victims.
Finding: Most victims meet online offenders face-to-face and go to those meetings expecting to engage in sex. Nearly three-quarters have sex with partners they met on the Internet more than once.
Internet predators meet their victims by posing online as other teens.
Finding: Only 5 percent of predators did that, according to the survey of investigators.
Online interactions with strangers are risky.
Finding: Many teens interact online all the time with people they don't know. What's risky, according to Wolak, is giving out names, phone numbers and pictures to strangers and talking online with them about sex.
Internet predators go after any child.
Finding: Usually their targets are adolescent girls or adolescent boys of uncertain sexual orientation, according to Wolak. Youths with histories of sexual abuse, sexual orientation concerns and patterns of off- and online risk-taking are especially at risk.
2-5-2008 National:
Abstract:
OBJECTIVE. Recently, public attention has focused on the possibility that social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook are being widely used to sexually solicit underage youth, consequently increasing their vulnerability to sexual victimization. Beyond anecdotal accounts, however, whether victimization is more commonly reported in social networking sites is unknown.
PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS. The Growing up With Media Survey is a national cross-sectional online survey of 1588 youth. Participants were 10- to 15-year-old youth who have used the Internet at least once in the last 6 months. The main outcome measures were unwanted sexual solicitation on the Internet, defined as unwanted requests to talk about sex, provide personal sexual information, and do something sexual, and Internet harassment, defined as rude or mean comments, or spreading of rumors.
RESULTS. Fifteen percent of all of the youth reported an unwanted sexual solicitation online in the last year; 4% reported an incident on a social networking site specifically. Thirty-three percent reported an online harassment in the last year; 9% reported an incident on a social networking site specifically. Among targeted youth, solicitations were more commonly reported via instant messaging (43%) and in chat rooms (32%), and harassment was more commonly reported in instant messaging (55%) than through social networking sites (27% and 28%, respectively).
CONCLUSIONS. Broad claims of victimization risk, at least defined as unwanted sexual solicitation or harassment, associated with social networking sites do not seem justified. Prevention efforts may have a greater impact if they focus on the psychosocial problems of youth instead of a specific Internet application, including funding for online youth outreach programs, school antibullying programs, and online mental health services. ..more.. by Michele L. Ybarra, MPH, PhDa and Kimberly J. Mitchell, PhDb
Cox Communications and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children join with John Walsh: Take Charge
January 2007
55% of online teens use social networks and 55% have created online profiles;
older girls predominate
More than half (55%) of all of online American youths ages 12-17 use an online social networking sites, according to a new national survey of teenagers conducted by Pew Internet & American Life Project.
The survey also finds that that older teens, particularly girls, are more likely to use these sites. For girls, social networking sites are places to reinforce pre-existing friendships, while for the boys who use the sites, the networks provide opportunities for flirting and making new friends.
A social networking site is an online location where a user can create a profile and build a personal network that connects him or her to other users. In the past five years, such sites1 have rocketed from a niche activity into a phenomenon that engages tens of millions of internet users. The explosive growth in the popularity of these sites has generated concerns among some parents, school officials, and government leaders about the potential risks posed when personal information is made available in such a public setting.
The survey, conducted by telephone from October 23 through November 19, 2006 among a random national sample of 935 youths ages 12 to 17, asked about the ways that teenagers use these sites and their reasons for doing so.
See report to explain these charts:
Navigating the treacherous streets of MySpace
1-22-2008 National
There is one thing about being a teen that every generation experiences. A teen must have a place to hang out, a place to meet and socialize with friends.
For some of us it might have been the malt shop, for others the mall.
For today's teen, it's the Internet, especially MySpace, Facebook and other networking sites. These sites generally offer an excellent way for teens to keep up with their friends while making new friends along with the way.
MySpace has grown to be the behemoth of the social networking websites, thanks in part to its openness that allows teens to be, well, open. But it's this openness that has created a headache for parents, teachers, teens, while raising serious issues of privacy and safety.
Trying to restore its good name -- and to relieve mounting legal pressure from 49 states and the District of Columbia -- MySpace recently agreed to implement new measures to protect young users from sexual predators. Earlier MySpace had deleted the profiles of approximately 29,000 known sex offenders and predators.
But deleting known predators doesn't solve the problem of young people who inadvertently give away too much information about themselves, or who, like 13-year-old Megan Meier, fall victim to hoaxes or harrassment.
While recent research suggests that posting personal information is only one type of behavior that is linked to victimization, there is no doubt that a teen girl who posts too much information makes it much easier for anyone -- cyber-bully, ex-boyfriend or predator -- to find her.
The acid test
So, just how effective is MySpace's latest attempt to safeguard teens? We decided to find out for ourselves how difficult it would be to track down teens or their parents. Turns out, it wasn't difficult at all.
We began by browsing profiles of 18-year-old females in the Midwest, something that any non-MySpace member can do. Out of the first 50 profiles, 36 were set on "public," which meant that we could see the information even though we were not a MySpace member.
Amazingly, many profiles included details such as where the girl worked, where she went to school, and her first and last name. Additionally, some included cell phone numbers.
After contacting the local police departments to let them know what we were doing, we called the girls, either at their work or cell phone numbers. Every girl was shocked that we found her.
We asked a very simple question: What were you thinking when you posted all of your personal information? We heard the same answers each time: "I thought that only my friends would see it," or "I didn't think anything, I just did it."
Unfortunately, this behavior is not uncommon. You might ask how anyone can be so open and naive as to post an abundance of personal information to the world, especially when it involves a teen girl.
While it is sometimes argued that the problem is a lack of parental involvement, there are also some profound developmental issues to deal with.
Teenagers' brains aren't fully developed yet," said Anne Collier, co-director of ConnectSafely.org, and co-author of MySpace Unraveled: A Parent's Guide to Teen Social Networking.
"The frontal lobe -- the executive part of the brain that controls impulses and thinks through the implications of actions -- isn't developed until people reach their early 20s," Collier said.
October 2007
Parents today are less likely to say that the internet has been a good thing for their children than they were in 2004. However, this does not mean there was a corresponding increase in the amount of parents who think the internet has been harmful to their children. Instead, the biggest increase has been in the amount of parents who do not think the internet has had an effect on their children one way or the other. Fully, 87% of parents of teenagers are online -- at least 17% more than average adults.
Parents check up on and regulate their teens' media use, not just in terms of the internet, but with television and video games as well. However, those rules lean slightly more towards the content of the media rather than the time spent with the media device.
In looking at parents and teenagers together we found that teens are likely to view technology devices more positively than their parents. Parents and teens tend to own a similar number of technology devices (2-3), but the type of devices differ. ..more.. by PEW
Determine the incidence of young people receiving unwanted or illegal sexual solicitations, pornography, and harassment over the Internet;
Gather information about the context of these experiences;
Assess young Internet users’ knowledge of how to avoid or respond to such experiences, including their awareness of help sources and their beliefs about the circumstances under which they might seek help or report such episodes; and
Ascertain the risk factors for unwanted sexual solicitation, unwanted exposure to pornography, and harassment.
Determine whether the frequencies of online exposures to unwanted pornography, sexual solicitations and harassment have changed among youth Internet users, ages 10 to 17, since YISS-1 was conducted;
Evaluate the impact on youth Internet users of unwanted pornography, sexual solicitations and harassment;
Evaluate the use and effectiveness of filtering and blocking software and the factors associated with its adoption and discontinuation;
Assess youth receptivity and reactions to a variety of different prevention messages aimed at reducing risky behavior online and increasing the reporting of incidents.
How teens manage their online identities and personal information in the age of MySpace
April 18, 2007
Summary of Findings
Many teenagers avidly use social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, and employ a variety of tools and techniques to manage their online identities.
Online social networks are spaces on the internet where users can create a profile and connect that profile to others to create a personal network. Social network users post content to their profiles and use tools embedded within social networking websites to contact other users. Young adults and teenagers are among the most avid users of such websites.
Much of the media coverage surrounding young people and online social networks has focused on the personal information teens make available on these networks. Are they sharing information that will harm their future college or job prospects? Or worse, are they sharing information that puts them at risk of victimization?
A new survey and a series of focus groups conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project examines how teens understand their privacy through several lenses: by looking at the choices that teens make to share or not to share information online, by examining what they share, by probing for the context in which they share it and by asking teens for their own assessment of their vulnerability. For many online teens, particularly those with profiles, privacy and disclosure choices are made as they create and maintain social networking profiles. Of course, material shared in a profile is just one of many places where information is shared online – but it provides a snapshot into the choices that teens make to share in a relatively public and persistent online environment. Further, we went on to examine the interactions teens have with people unknown to them on social networking sites, exploring the nature of new friendships created on the networks, as well as unwelcome, and some times uncomfortable or scary stranger contacts.
Most teenagers are taking steps to protect themselves online from the most obvious areas of risk. The new survey shows that many youth actively manage their personal information as they perform a balancing act between keeping some important pieces of information confined to their network of trusted friends and, at the same time, participating in a new, exciting process of creating content for their profiles and making new friends. Most teens believe some information seems acceptable – even desirable – to share, while other information needs to be protected.
Still, the survey also suggests that today’s teens face potential risks associated with online life. Some 32% of online teenagers (and 43% of social-networking teens) have been contacted online by complete strangers and 17% of online teens (31% of social networking teens) have “friends” on their social network profile who they have never personally met.
Here is a general statistical snapshot of how teens use social network sites and the way they handle their privacy on them: ....... ..more (a long list of findings).. by PEW INTERNET & AMERICAN LIFE PROJECT 1615 L ST., NW – SUITE 700 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20036: Amanda Lenhart -and- Mary Madden, Senior Research Specialists
Note: A very long list of findings and worth the time to read because much contradicts what was found by Finkelhor in 2000 "Online Victimization: A Report on the Nation’s Youth"
In January of 2007 Pew researchers Lenhart and Madden issued this memo which is also worth time to read.
